Mummified Pleistocene Ostracods in Alaska

Abstract

Preserved soft parts of ostracod specimens were recovered from beach and lagoon sediments from the Gubik Formation, of Quaternary age, at Barrow, Alaska.

Exceptionally preserved lacustrine ostracods from the Middle Miocene of Antarctica: implications for high-latitude palaeoenvironment at 77° south

“…Bate 1972). The only previously reported high-latitude example (from Alaska) differs markedly from that described here in that the soft anatomy is mummified (Schmidt & Sellman 1966). The ostracods from Palaeolake Boreas are preserved in iron oxide (presumed to be goethite), frequently with detrital minerals adhering to their surfaces.…”

Cyclocypris diebeliAbsolon, 1973 (Ostracoda, Crustacea), extinct in Europe, extant in Japan

“…These records (reviewed in Smith, 2000), comprise phosphatized soft-parts and, more rarely, mummified organic remnants like those reported from perennially frozen sediments from Mid-Pleistocene of Alaska (Schmidt and Sellmann, 1966). Another finding of chitinous preservation was reported by Horne et al (1990): they described parts of the hemipenes of Aurila convexa (Baird) from the British Pleistocene, thus proving the presence of males of a species which is known to reproduce parthenogenetically today, apart from bisexual populations in the Mediterranean.…”

An ostracod‐like arthropod with appendages preserved from the lower Ordovician of England

“…Fossil ostracods with preserved soft parts are best known from Triassic Myodocopida (Weitschat 1983) and Cretaceous Podocopida (Bate 1972). Other examples are limited to single or a few specimens: a Devonian palaeocope (Mdler 1979b); a Carboniferous palaeocope (Miiller 1979b); a Carboniferous podocope (Brongniart 1876; see M d e r 1979a); a Triassic podocope (Kozur et al 1993); Jurassic podocopes (Gramann 1962); a Jurassic myodocopid (Dzik 1978); Jurassic and Cretaceous podocopids (Gocht & Goerlich 1957); and Pleistocene podocopids (Schmidt & Sellman 1966).…”